On the first day of December, PocketFives.com member Chris Big HuniHunichen bested the final table of the $1,000 buy-in UB.com $150,000 Guarantee. The victory was worth $40,000 and 389 PocketFives.com PLB Points. Hunichen, a recent guest on the PocketFives.com Podcast, sits in the top 50 worldwide in the Rankings. We caught up with the man they call Big Huni, a member of Team Bustout, to recap the latest feather in his cap.

PocketFives.com: You won the UB.com $1K on December 1st. Tell us about what life has been like since.

Chris Hunichen: Before and after the UB.com $1K win, I guess you can say that my life was pretty crazy. The tournament ended very late, so my roommate was already passed out. It was one of those situations where after I shipped it, I didn’t really have anybody to celebrate with, so I basically just went to bed. The following night, I went to Downtown Raleigh to celebrate.

It ended up being an extremely wild night and I woke up Friday stating that I was not going to move the entire day. Well, I had forgotten that it was one of my buddy’s birthdays, so Friday night we had to do it all over again. I ended up going twice as hard on Friday night, which led me to take off from poker until Sunday’s grind session.

Abnormally, I woke up around 8:30am. I usually don’t start grinding until 1:00pm on Sundays and usually wake up around Noon and do the normal Sunday routine. For three hours, I anxiously waited for the Sunday schedule to start, more motivated than ever to play a Sunday session.

After a few final table bubbles and some sick beats deep, I finished with a pretty miserable Sunday. I then stayed up to rail my boy stanman420 (pictured), who took down the Sunday 500. Big congrats to him on his biggest score to date, with more to come for sure. The next thing I knew, it was almost 11:00am on Monday morning and I was just getting to sleep.

PocketFives.com: How does your win in the UB.com $1K compare to others you’ve had?

Chris Hunichen: A few months ago, I wrote an article for PocketFives.com called “The Lifestyle of a Professional Poker Player.” I was in the biggest rut of my life with poker. The very next day, I won the $100 Rebuy on a Sunday on PokerStars for a little over $40,000. I believe that was the best win I have had so far because of the rut I was in.

I had taken some time off from online poker and took some shots at some much bigger live buy-in events as well, which adds up very quickly. Before Wednesday’s session started, I was actually on the biggest downswing of my entire career, so that win meant just as much to me as the $100 Rebuy win after I wrote the article.

In both instances, I had started questioning a lot about my game and almost getting into a panic mode wondering what it was going to take for me to win again. During my break from online poker, I came into Day 4 of the Foxwoods WPT televised Main Event first out of 27 with over $540,000 to the winner. I finished in 16th place and it was one of the most heartbreaking experiences I have dealt with in poker, and I have had very many.

With all of this leading up to last Wednesday, I honestly feel like this win could not have come at a better time. I have had some pressure released off my shoulders and can focus on getting back into the right mindset I need to be successful at this game.

Your mental state in poker means the entire world; when you’re down and out, you’re not going to win. It is virtually impossible to run good when you automatically know you’re not going to run good. Attitude is everything in this game, and even for the top pros, it can still be difficult to maintain a positive attitude with this lifestyle. Also, any time I can take down a final table that includes Steve gboro780 Gross (pictured), it’s automatically an honor. He is a freak of nature when it comes to this game and might be one of the best ever.

PocketFives.com: Assess your online and live poker results this year.

Chris Hunichen: Overall, I am very happy with my results and my accomplishments. Many people know by now what I went through 14 months ago and the downward spiral my life took me. Since the day I moved back to North Carolina and started my life all over, I have hit four of my five all-time biggest scores.

Coming into this year, I had one score of around $42,000 that was my biggest score ever. This year, I have hit four scores ranging between $40,000 and $90,000 and my results have improved dramatically. My live game is at a whole different level. I got 31st in my first ever WSOP event two or three years ago for $13,700. Until my recent trip to Foxwoods, that was my biggest live score to date.

I ended up final tabling a $2,500 preliminary event at Foxwoods. I followed this up with a 16th place performance in the Foxwoods WPT Main event for around $33,000. I then went to Los Angeles for the NAPT event held by PokerStars and entered the last level of Day 1 as the chip leader of the entire event. While I had an awful Day 2 and didn’t even cash, I have seen a huge improvement in my live game and am going to look to transition more to the live arena during 2011.

I am happy with my results. However, I still have not hit that six-figure score that I have been so close to so many times, so until I do, I will never be completely satisfied with my results.

PocketFives.com: One last question for you. What was the biggest poker news story of 2010?

Chris Hunichen: I think the biggest poker news story of 2010 is how the top internet pros have taken over the live circuits. I truly believe the top internet players are much better than the top live players of today’s game. I believe fundamentally that the live pros have a lot of leaks and fundamental flaws that only work live because there are so many amateur and recreational players compared to the online scene.

I don’t think it was a coincidence that deep in the WSOP Main Event, the majority of players remaining were internet pros. Two of my friends were fortunate enough to final table the event, and the fame and notoriety that comes with that is just amazing. The game is continuously getting harder and developing into a new style day-by-day. I feel like internet players have such an advantage because of how many hands we see in a given time period compared to the number of hands live players see during the same time period. I feel like the internet players are much smarter and able to adjust to the always-evolving game much more rapidly than most of the live pros.